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July 8, 2026 13 mins

Guest is Jennifer Loeb, CEO. Ronald McDonald House of Greater Cincinnati and Dayton have merged to form Ronald McDonald House Southwest Ohio and together are now the largest Ronald McDonald House in the country. What this merger really means is more families with critically ill children will have a place to stay, right next to the hospitals where their kids are being treated. 

The organization as a whole is also making a fresh start with its name, dropping "Charities" and leaning into what it's always really been: a home. Their new motto is "Family Stays.” It’s about keeping families together during the hardest moments of their lives.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to iHeart Sincy. This is a locally produced show
laser focused on the issues that we face here in
the Tri State. We're working to understand how they happen
and finding solutions to the problems right here at home.
My first guest is Jennifer Loebe. She's the president of
the Ronald McDonald House of Cincinnati and she's been doing
that for decades now taking on a bigger challenge to

(00:20):
improve the free services for families with kids being treated
at our premier children's hospitals here. Jennifer Lobe, Welcome to
iHeart Cincy. You've merged with Dayton that just completed their
new renovation. They went from a very small number of rooms.
I can't remember how many, ten, fifteen, something like that.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, they were around twenty in Dayton and then doubled
to forty two.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yeah. Yeah, So now they have a kind of a
high rise at least a multi floor house and yeah,
bigger operation story. So while it's sad that the need
is there, it's great that the people have supported the
Ronald McDonald House charities and and it's great that now
you're overseeing both of those houses. Tell me a little

(01:04):
bit about you and how you got involved here in Cincinnati.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
I grew up in Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
I'm born and raised here, and went to Miami for
undergrad in Ohio State for grad school, and then I
joined the Peace Corps and I was in Morocco near
the Sahara Desert doing maternal and child health work for
a while.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
And then when I came back, it.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Was just a natural fit to join the nonprofit sector,
and so I worked at First Step Home, which is
drug treatment for low income and homeless women. I worked
at Welcome House, which is homeless shelter Protect at Pay program,
and then when I was twenty eight years old, this
job opened up at Ronald McDonald House. And it's the

(01:50):
best decision I ever made. I've been here ever since
twenty seven years and I just love it every single day.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
One thing people may not realize is the Ronald McDonald
House is not really subsidized by McDonald's. That's the big
misnomer I think that a lot of people had. Can
you explain the relationship and where the money comes from
to pay for these days for people and all these
services for free.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
McDonald's is our founding and forever mission partner.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
They've been involved since the beginning and still are and
their customers help support the house through roundup and other initiatives.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
So McDonald's is involved.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
They have several spots on our board and they do
a lot to support our mission. We also rely on businesses, individuals,
foundations in the area to make it possible and keep
our doors open. So we don't get any city, state,
or federal grant funding other than Medicaid reimbursement for lodging.
That's the only federal money we get, and so it's

(02:51):
pretty much just generous people and businesses and foundations that
help support the work we do.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
What is the difference now between you running the Cincinnati
house and now adding on the Dayton location. How does
that change your day to day scheduling of people who
need to stay there and who Well, let's do this,
who first is coming? For those who don't know who's
first coming to the Ronald McDonald House in either Dayton

(03:19):
or Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
So Ronald McDonald House is designed for any parent who
has a hospitalized child, and at the Dayton House, they
can be local families, they can be from anywhere. We
also serve Shriners and they bring families from all over
the world for burn treatment and like craniofacial surgery. So
here in Cincinnati, we have families who live at least

(03:43):
forty miles away from the house is the main criteria,
with the thought being if you know, if you live
in Cincinnati, you can probably commute from home, but anyone
who lives outside of that radius really needs to be
close by and able to get to the hospital quickly.
So those are the families we serve. But there's screening
criteria for income. Everyone stays here for free, there's no

(04:05):
charge for services. So yeah, we have families really from
all over the world to come here for care.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
The workers there do such a great job of making
the families feel welcome and you know we've got this.
You know, you go do your kid, you go take
care of your family.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
We really do have the best team here.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
The way I see them care for families just is
it's really almost indescribable, the compassion and the empathy that
our team has, but also the just the smarts and
the humor and everything, you know, to make people feel
really comfortable and safe. We do a lot of work

(04:47):
with trauma informed care, which is really looking at you know,
instead of thinking what's wrong with you If someone is
not having a good day and they're irritable or something.
Instead of thinking what's wrong with you, think what happened
to you? And these families are going through a cute
and chronic trauma every day like it's you know, you know,

(05:08):
you've been there. It's like the scariest time in your
life to have a sick child, and your main concern
is for them and getting the care they need to
get better and to heal.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
But then you think of all the other things you need.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
You know, a place to get some decent rest, a
hot shower, you know, nourishing meals in your stomach, you know,
places for your other kids to play.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
If you have to bring siblings here, what are you
going to do with them all day?

Speaker 2 (05:33):
And so we try to anticipate as a team and
think about all the things that families will need to
feel loved and safe and supported while their kids are
in the hospital. And that's just what we set out
to do every day to meet all those needs for families.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
And it's really a privilege to be able to do that.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
It really is a home away from home because you
provide the meals, there's open refrigerators, there's places to sit
and watch television, to talk to each other other families
can do that as well, and places for kids to play.
Having personally worked there at the Dayton Ronald McDonald House
several years ago, it was just one of the most
rewarding experiences because you don't really realize the extent of

(06:17):
being away from home while your child is sick.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Our founder, Audrey Evans, who was a pediatric oncologist, she
had this phrase, when a child is sick, the whole
family is sick, and so it really does change the
as you noted, like the stress and the just day
to day worries of a family are exponential when you

(06:42):
have a kid in the hospital and you can feel
it and it's palpable, like you can feel what these
families are going through. You know, our global organization, we're
going through a rebranding right now and we have this
beautiful new logo and we have a new tagline which
is Family Stays. And if you think about that a minute,
and like Family Stays, that's what we do. We house

(07:02):
families and feed them and take care of them and
they stay here while their kids are in the hospital.
But the broader meaning is you know, when you have
a kid in the hospital and you have visitors come,
whether it's grandparents or neighbors or friends from school, Like
visitors pop in. They you know, bring you balloons or flowers.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Or a toy.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
They ask how you're doing. They you know, say nice
things to try to cheer you up. And then they
go home and they resume their lives, but family stays.
And so that's the whole concept of Ronald McDonald House
is that kids heal better when their families are here
with them. And that's what Ronald McDonald House is all about,
is keeping families right across the street so that they

(07:42):
can be there every day. And doctors tell us and
there have been studies when you know, when families are
well rested and ready to take on the day, their
better support to their kids.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
And I like the fact that the Ronald McDonald House
also makes room for other needs. Like you said, the
Shriners that are now out of Cincinnati and in Dayton
for how many years now, when did they move up there.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
I think it's been a couple of years since they've
moved up to Dayton. Yeah, yeah, I mean they have
space within Dayton Children's Hospital.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
We did some work with the pause for for ability
for boss for yes, that's a fore pause for ability
where you need a service dog, and these little sweethearts
are fifteen thousand dollars if not more to train so
that they can take care of your child who has

(08:35):
diabetes or seizures and such. And so the Ronald McDonald
House was allowing the family who is now coming to
the area to pick up their dog to stay for
a few days so that they can get acclimated to
the dog and make sure that the dog follows their commands.
They have to actually pass a test, the parents, the

(08:56):
people that are getting the family, they have to pass
a test to make sure that you can work well
together with your dog.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yes, it's a great program.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
And families come from all over for the service dogs
and they spend a couple weeks with us while they
are in training, and yeah, it's an incredible program.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
I think a lot of people here Ronald.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
McDonald House and assume that we only serve hospitals, but
there are some unique programs like that that are important
to the child's medical care and well being. And yeah,
we're thrilled to be able to support that program.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
When you're talking numbers, Cincinnati is how big and then
Dayton is We said forty two rooms.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Now we have forty two rooms at our Dayton house
and one hundred and seventy seven in Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
And your capacity most of the.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Time, Cincinnati is full every night with a wait list.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
We do have open rooms in Dayton and that's part
of what we're working on now is finding the families
who could benefit from staying in those rooms.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yes, is there anything that you want people to know
about this merger and the new branding that you've got
starting now? Well, how is that going to change your
mission or what is it that you want folks to know?

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Our mission stays the same, which is caring for families
when they most need the love and support.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
What does change.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
A little is that we are growing into who we've
always wanted to be.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
So we're not changing, but.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
We are growing and poised to serve even more families
and do that in a efficient, combined way.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
So this was a.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Proactive merger with two healthy chapters. You know, there's a
lot of nonprofits out there.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
I know you do this. There's so many and I
think sometimes the tendency is.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
For people to start a new nonprofit and there's a
lot that goes with that, and boards and all kinds
of stuff you have to be aware of. And for us,
we're like, it makes sense to come together and do
this more efficiently. We don't need the overlap. In several positions,
we're keeping the whole team in Dayton as part of
the merger because we need the staff. But like my

(11:00):
predecessor you, we're not replacing her. There's just a lot
of operating efficiencies and coming together and then we can
put that money toward caring for families, which is what
we do best. It's just really about being thoughtful and
efficient and putting as much money as we can toward
caring for families. And we're excited to have the combined

(11:21):
teams and resources. And it's kind of a year of
exploration and figuring things out together, but it's well underway.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
If anybody he wants to help out, what do we do, Jennifer,
how do we help out?

Speaker 3 (11:36):
They can go to our website.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
We are launching the new brand this week, Ronald McDonald
House Southwest, Ohio, and we would love for people to
volunteer to make a donation, whether it's monetary or off
our wish list. We have items that we use all
the time that people can find on the website, and
you can host outside fundraisers. You can just tell people

(12:00):
what you know about us and spread the word about
Ronald mcdonalanh House. But we would welcome people to be
involved in any way that feels.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
Good for them.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
You still do in the pool tabs, Yeah, we're still
doing those, and that's part of what you said, Like
with little kids, it's like just keeping our house top
of mind. So when you pull a tab, it makes
you think of the house and the work that goes
on here and being a part of that. So yes,
we're still definitely doing that. And kids can do wishlifts, drives,
that's an easy way. We've had kids do lemonade stands

(12:30):
and then buy things off our wish lists. So there's
all sorts of way that kids can get involved. But yeah,
I know this mission hit me differently. I was here
ten years before I had my own kids, and once
you mentally put yourself in the shoes of what families
are going through here, you just I mean that the
bravery and the strength of these families every day is

(12:51):
incredible to witness. We're really lucky to be a part
of it and grateful to be here for them.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
Thank you so much for taking in the time today,
and if there's anything you'll need, we're right here.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Thanks Sandy, appreciate your time. It's good to see you
you too.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Next, fighting homelessness in the Tri State. This is iHeart Cincy.
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